You'v got 48 hours to comply Michael, i'v got a DVD Burner and i know how to use it, its your choice !
Printable View
You'v got 48 hours to comply Michael, i'v got a DVD Burner and i know how to use it, its your choice !
As I don't wish to teach people how to suck eggs please ask a specific question!!!!!
There are loads of tutorials on the net for building a laser pointer with a DVD diode, thats the hard bit!!
Cheers!
Michael.
Right,
What power?
Where do you buy them?
What to use for a power supply?
How do you focus it?
What will it cut / engrave given the power?
When are you coming to fit it and wire it up for me ?
Is that enough to work with ?:heehee:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kip
Now that's cool... tracking ants by CNC
Could you use the DVD mechanism's focus servo ? (i.e. it already has a beam splitter and monitor diodes)Quote:
How do you focus it?
Okay.......Quote:
Originally Posted by John S
Power - The one I used was 180mw 635nm (visable red)
Where to get/PSU & focusing all here http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/300mW-650nm-Re...3A1%7C294%3A50
http://www.mickduffin.com/laserkit.jpg
This includes everything you need, really easy. Comes with lens & body which is 12mm od so you'll need to fashion a clamp for that. The lens supplied is plastic however so was the one I used.
To drive it, simply give it 6 - 20v when you want it to fire. I would reccomend either a transistor or solid state relay to turn it off / on as switching speeds could get to high for a mechanical relay.
Focusing is easily adjusted by rotating the lens at the end of the unit.
At 180mw - 300mw you will only be cutting foams up to a few mm's and vinyl / stickey back plastic.
for engraving, Pretty much anything organic eg; leather, Wood etc. Also most plastics but results will vary depending on the colour of the material, A red laser will hardly leave a witness mark on red plastic and would struggle to set fire to bright white paper. However if was a slightly darker colour paper would ignite almost instantly.
John S. When ever you like mate!!!!:beer:
http://www.mickduffin.com/image2.jpg
Michael Duffin.
Round? is that a trick question:joker:Quote:
Originally Posted by Kip
They are collimator lens's, Will try and get a pic of one, Shape is Aspheric. The glass ones use 3 different lens's one of which is AR coated.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kip
Michael
Not sure to be honest, Don't think the DVD burner runs the diodes that high (so little heatsink may not be good enough, though possible on a lightscribe?Quote:
Originally Posted by BillTodd
There also designed to be a couple of mill off the surface which could presesnt quite a problem.
Once your diodes in your Z axis and focused to produce the smallest spot size at 50% z axis travel, you can then jog your Z up and down to focus.
The beam created with those Axiz 12 x 30mm lens looks like an hour glass, At the point where the two sides of this hour glass cross is where your material surface should be.
Like........
http://www.epiloglaser.com/images/lens.gif
Ignore the steering mirror.
Michael.
Michael, that's fantastic information. Many many thanks.
I'm now going to ask loads of really obscure questions that are difficult to answer definitively... :smile:
Does the laser always leave a black mark, or does that depend on the material?
Is the colour of the material important? Is it generally only dark colours that are marked?
Can you burn lines with the laser? Your baby image - which is really impressive - looks as if it was created with a series of dots. Was that just the way the image was converted to gcode?
If it can draw lines, how fast? 5mm per minute? 100?
Okay, enough going around the houses. This is what I'm thinking about:
I use my machine to drill and cut some simple PCBs for my brother - glass fibre 'FR4' board. Seeing as the sheets are mounted on the machine already, I'm thinking that a laser might be able to label the boards and save an awkward screen-printing stage.
Do you think it's worth a punt?
Or is the laser quite picky about the material it will mark?
(I'm tight as nuts, and although these kits are only about £30 at the moment, every hobby penny counts!)
Cheers,
Keith.
okay.............Quote:
Originally Posted by korky
The laser leaves a burnt mark, Darker usually dark brown or black depending on material.
Colour makes all the difference. Eg; That bit of wood was actually lighter than it looks in the photo It burnt well, The red plastic handle of my screwdriver is not effected by the laser at all.
Can it do lines???
Well it can do anything your machine can, If you want to raster engrave this is how its done. You cant adjust the laser power as it wont have enough power at less than 180mw or so. So you make the image out of a series of dots spaced closer for darker and further for lighter.
In a paint package convert a photo to 1 bit black and white using error diffusion and you'll see what I mean.
If your engraving is vector based then use any cad software to create your g-code, I then wrote a script to swap Z- moves for "laser on" and Z+ moves for "laser off" (if that makes sense?)
Mach has a setting for 2.5d Z axis which turns an output on when Z is down and so on, This may work I have not tried it for other reasons.
Will it mark glass fibre 'FR4' board?
No it will not unless you apply something else to the board first, there is a spray called CerMark which does work with DVD diodes (though they claim nothing below 10 watts) but maybe not on glass fibre board, I once got a guy to paint his copper clad board with matt black spray paint and then used the laser to remove the paint (same as routing isolation) to develop PCB's.
Michael Duffin.
Michael,
On another note altogether I have taken a leaf out of your book and put a picture of myself on my avatar...
Its good to put a face to a name.
Speak to you later.
Steve.
Didn't know you smoked :beer:Quote:
Originally Posted by HiltonSteve